A booked order is not a production order.

The most expensive ten minutes you are skipping

In most plants the order reaches the shop floor as a message, a photo of a purchase order, or a verbal instruction during the morning round. The floor starts. Three days later somebody discovers the coil weight, the coating class or the delivery date does not match what the customer approved.

The fix is not more software on the floor. It is one review, owned by one person, before the job is released.

What the review checks

Five checks, in this order, every time.

• Specification completeness, every typed field filled and buildable.
• Commercial closure, approved rate, terms and validity in place.
• Stock position, what is available, what is held, what must be made.
• Capacity and sequence, where this order sits against current load.
• Committed date, set once and published to sales and the customer.

Who should own it

Not the sales officer, they are incentivised to release. Not the Works Manager, they inherit whatever comes. A Sales Admin sitting between the two, with the authority to hold an order until it is complete, is the arrangement that holds.

Give the role a service level, every booked order reviewed within one working day, so the gate does not become a queue.

What you will notice in a month

Fewer specification changes mid production. Fewer promised dates being renegotiated. And a much shorter list of complaints that start with the words, sales told the customer something else.

Takeaway

One review, one owner, one working day. It costs less than a single rejected batch.